new carver wanting feedback

My mom and sister-in-law went to Hawaii in 2004 and brought me back a small tiki. As it turns out my neighbor, Jay Brooks from the band Clouseaux, wanted help getting logs to carve some tikis. I had already been carving fish, so I thought why not give tikis a try. I was hooked! I made my family some for Christmas. Here are some pics…

Those were the first two.

This is what came next:

I did these for a vet- notice the cat and dog.

This was a small one for my boss.

These above I did this summer.

I'm working on this mask now. Even got my wife learning how to carve on this one!

What the hell do you need feeddback from lowly carvers like us ?

Your $hit rocks! What can we say?

Nice stuff!

Welcome and mahalo from TC!

McTiki

Those are great!
When I went to Coon Tiki I remember Tiki Diablo saying.
"more deeper more better"
Now I have not carved much.
But when I do I still hear those words.
Keep it up.

ditto here, I'd buy em if I wasn't broke from mugs..........

Well, I just don't know. I really think they are in dire need of a professional checking out so if you'll just send them to me, I will check them out and make sure they look OK in my tiki setting. When I'm done I'll send you a full report of course, but in the Meantime keep on carving those excellent looking tikis. Oh yeah, and by the way, WELCOME to Tiki Central!
:lol: :lol:

Thank you very much or should I say mahalo. I have some smaller masks I am about to start so I will post them soon. This site has helped me so much and you guys are great.

Good work Dan-O!! I need to post your blue one...

You are off and rockin'. Keep it up! I bet you're already finding that you can think of more designs you wanna do, than you'll ever have time to do!

Nice work.

Great stuff! The wood you are using is so interesting looking! What woods are they? Looks like you really know what you're doing with the carving. I hope you can hang around and get some ideas on some different styles of tikis.
And I know they might not be totally in theme - but I gotta see some of your fish! I see one peeking out in the background of that first picture, but I'm dying to see what else you've got. :)

Great work!
I really like the tikis you carved for the vet - very clever way to work in the cat and dog faces. I want to see those masks you're carving!

Those are all outstanding. I would love to have them all in my yard.

Thank you all for the replies. Mieko I use whatever logs I can find usually. The wood in most of these pictures is cedar from a tree that fell in my parents yard. Here are some pictures of some fish I have carved as well.

Sweet fish! SWEET! I likee the wahooeee!!!

-G

I like the Moai, Dan, but on the rest you need to get some better reference on true South Pacific art and draw influence from it if you're going to pursue being a tiki carver. The pineapple head thing was invented by Wayne Coombs originally, but ended up being copied by every coastal souvenir carver around; it was so often done on those Florida style tikis that it got to be a clique` and usually had folks in the tiki world rolling their eyes. I'd stay away from it. You do have ability, man.. you can definitely see that.

Nice work BDan. There is definately a slickness/refinement to your designs. Love your fish - yep, you'll have a fan with Gman with those.

Keep posting!

Tama :)

sound advice bk. dan, your talent is obvious. the fish are fantastic. if you study up on tikis i'm sure you can create some fine pieces. check out bk's thread : http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=25496&forum=7&start=0

"The pineapple head thing was invented by Wayne Coombs originally, but ended up being copied by every coastal souvenir carver around"

Thanks for the input BK... I didn't know where the pineapple came from but strange that we (Wayne and I)have the same last name. I did them as a special request for the vet (he fixed my dog's broken leg in exchange...).

I'll check out those books though.

thanks again~

Really nice work. It's hard being a newbie to it all eh? Everybody had to start somewhere, and we learn as we go. Have fun, keep carving and posting as you study. There is great advice on that thread and all over this board. You've made a great start. I just bought a couple of those books myself. Love the vet trade, hope your pups doing well.